Russia revives dormant engines to bring thousands of Cold War tanks back online
Russia has restarted a regeneration program for the W-46 and W-84 diesel engines, enabling about 1,000 of the oldest T-72A hulls from long-term storage to be brought back to operational status and helping roughly 5,100 Soviet-era tanks be restored or readied. Some restored tanks will be upgraded toward the T-72B3M standard with added armor and modern electronics, but they still lag modern Russian tanks. Analysts caution that Russia no longer has a true Cold War stockpile to draw on for rapid regeneration after attritional warfare, signaling a shift in how it would conduct large-scale mechanized warfare in the future.